Stamp of the Day

"We bring you 'Voices from America,'" said announcer William Harlan Hale at the start of a 15-minute shortwave radio broadcast that was transmitted into Germany on February 1, 1942. "Today, and daily from now on, we shall speak to you about America and the war," he continued. "The news may be good for us. The news …

Every once in a while, I find myself reflecting on what I wrote in a #stampoftheday post and wondering if I went down the wrong path or, at least, missed an interesting opportunity. Yesterday', when I wrote about a stamp issued in 1967 to honor the 25th anniversary of Voice of America (VOA), was one of …

"Valor is a gift," Carl Sandburg once said. "Those having it never know for sure whether they have it until the test comes." The four chaplains on the SS Dorchester displayed extraordinary valor on February 3, 1943 when a German submarine sank the converted luxury coastal liner, which was carrying about 900 servicemen, merchant seamen and …

I live close to Concord, Massachusetts which means that whenever I'm feeling too adequate, I can recalibrate by taking a modest bike ride past the homes of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. And if I'm still feeling too good about myself, I can go a bit father to a pond where …

We never spoke about it, but I suspect that my father had a particular soft spot for Joseph Priestly. As someone trained as a chemist, my father would have known of and respected Priestly who died on February 6, 1804. He's pictured on today's #stampoftheday, a 20-cent stamp issued in 1983 and shown here on a …

I'm sure that there many of the people who defended the Capital were former Boy Scouts. I'm also sure that many of those attacked the building also were former Boy Scouts. I have zero evidence or proof of this. But - having been a Boy Scout and having worked for two summers at Camp Glen Gray, a …

In 1975, like many in the cast, I grew a beard for our high school's production of "Fiddler on the Roof." (I played the rabbi.) Except a few brief interludes in the late 70s, I've had a beard ever since. Beards change the way people look, and, presumably how they are perceived. That's dramatically illustrated by …

For about two decades, maybe longer, we've ended our Passover Seder by singing "Amazing Grace." It's always late and we're full - of food, spirit, love, and hope, and other good things. Obviously not a traditional Jewish song, its message of hope and redemption resonates in way that makes it the perfect ending for the …

"Baker shut up. Able isn't who you think he is," was the "punchline" of one of the few stories my father would tell about being a soldier in World War II. (Or at least that's how I remember the story). When he was 19, my father was the radioman in a mobile reconnaissance unit from the …